Double Crossbow (Daryl Dixon) [The Walking Dead]

Chapter 76 ↣ You feel like swimmin'?

"Nothing comes from nothing
Nothing ever could
So somewhere in my youth or childhood
I must have done something good"

- Something Good, The Sound of Music

↣ ↢

BEFORE

Ava has been missing a week. Kathryn calls every government agency even remotely related to the foster care system. She finds no answers. She calls a second time. A third. Finally, a tired woman on the other line gives her an address after Kathryn claims to be from Ava's school.

Kathryn walks up the decaying front porch and knocks on the front door. Dogs howl from inside, but no one answers the door. She knocks again.

"Yes, yes!" a voice yells on the other side of the door.

It opens, revealing a tattered woman. Her hair sticks out like she has been electrocuted, and the proportions of her face are asymmetrical, worsened by the extreme angle she's tilting her head to look up at Kathryn.

Kathryn smiles. "Hello. I'm the librarian from Ava's school. Her teacher asked me to bring by the required reading." Kathryn lifts a copy of Black Beauty up, showing the woman.

The woman blinks slowly. Finally she says, "Ava?"

Kathryn's stomach twists. "Oh, maybe I have the wrong address. Are you Margret? Ava's foster?"

Margret smacks her lips, and Kathryn reels in a cringe. "That's me...Ava's that small'un?"

Kathryn is not sure how long she can keep up a polite demeanor with this woman. She thinks her eye may twitch when she asks, "You're not sure?"

Margret waves her hand in dismissal. "Rotten kids come and go."

"So she's not here?" Kathryn asks, opting to ignore the first half of her reply.

"Nah. Small'uns go quick. She went to...Virginia? Vermont?" Margret shrugs.

Kathryn is filled with relief and despair. Ava has been adopted and she will never see her again. As she grapples with these feelings, Margret starts mumbling to herself.

"Shame. Small'uns don't need as much."

"What?" Anger douses Kathryn's composure.

Margret steps back. "You know...cause they're small. That's all."

Kathryn sees Ava now in the back of her mind. Skin and bones and a hidden bruise. "If you hate children so much," Kathryn seethes, "don't invite them into your home."

"Who do you think you are?" Margret steps towards Kathryn now. "How dare you judge me!"

Kathryn looks down at Margret, sees the key on her chain around her neck. "That for the fridge? Maybe the pantry."

Margret turns red, confirming the accusation. "Children need discipline. Who is gonna teach them? You? With your books? They are nothing until they're shaped into something. It takes a firm hand."

Kathryn punches Margret square in the nose. Blood runs in a gush down her face, onto the key at her neck. She cups at her face, like she is trying to shove the blood back into her nose. A strangled sound, somewhere between a gasp and moan, squeezes out of her throat.

Kathryn leans into Margret's space, forcing the woman to step back into her doorway. "One day every nasty thing you have ever done is gonna rise up and eat you alive. I'm just a taste of it. Better course correct now Margret."

The next door neighbor has been eavesdropping on this whole conversation, pretending to water her garden. She runs inside to call the police.

Officer Rick Grimes shows up on the front porch twenty minutes after Kathryn has left it. They will meet properly later. And some time after that, Ava and Kathryn will meet again.